You don't need to be a film buff to know what Bruce Willis became famous for. The actor's action film credits are some of the most comprehensive out there, and while the actor is most famous for playing the role of officer John McClane in the Die Hard series, it's certainly not the sole reason Willis became typecast for playing the quintessential action hero. Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Element and Armageddon are all films that contributed towards his tough guy persona. But not only did the Die Hard series coin one of the most famous phrases of the 90s (Yippee ki-yay!), it also cemented a reputation of violent action that Willis would spend a considerable amount of time trying to escape from. Variations on the one man army character Willis became known for were all well and good in a genre concerned more with explosions over thought-provoking dialogue, but the actor needed to branch out much further than that to be considered for more varying roles. The Typecast-Breaking Roles: Willis did indeed prove that he was able to play more subdued characters (ones that didn't involve shooting first and asking questions later), and the two most notable films that had the actor play hugely different characters were in The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. The former is so famous for its plot twist that it hardly needs an explanation, but Willis' performance as Dr. Malcom Crowe - a child psychologist - in the film gained him significant praise for playing a role that revealed his ability to play empathetic and believable characters. Unbreakable (a rare example of M. Night Shyamalan's ability to make great films) cast Willis in a role that was an almost tongue-in-cheek jab at his history, with the actor playing the sole survivor of a train crash that reveals him to be an invincible - but reluctant - father who is encouraged to become a pseudo superhero. Ironically though, Willis seems to have come full circle on his acting career in recent years, starring in the testosterone-filled Expendables films and Red. Huh, go figure.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
